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The Biden administration of the United States on Monday announced the allocation plan to distribute around 55 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines across the world. The US will be sharing these vaccines through the COVAX initiative as well as bilaterally with India and other Asian countries getting 16 million doses out of the total 55 million.
The move is a part of US President Joe Biden’s earlier announcement to distribute 80 million vaccine doses in total by the end of this month. The allocation plan for 25 million vaccines has already been announced and the shipping of doses has also started, the White House said in a press release.
Of the 55 million doses, 25% or approximately 14 million would be shared bilaterally to regional priorities and other countries including Colombia, Argentina, Haiti, other CARICOM countries, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Tunisia, Oman, West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, and Bosnia.
The remaining 75% of vaccine doses will be distributed through the COVAX initiative. The regional distribution for them will be as follows:
- Latin America and the Caribbean- 14 million
- Asia(including India and its neighbours)- 16 million
- Africa- 10 million
“For all of these doses, those most at risk, such as health care workers, should be prioritized, based on national vaccine plans,” the statement added. In a significant statement, the White House said, “The United States will not use its vaccines to secure favors from other countries. ”
It may be recalled that the US has also decided to purchase 500 million Pfizer vaccines to be distributed to 92 lower-income countries including those in Africa. The G7+ countries, at the recent summit, have decided to make available more than 1 billion vaccines starting from the summer of 2021.
The White House stated that it is working towards expanding local production of vaccines through the ‘Quad partnership’ and the support of the International Development Finance Corporation which would help to produce more than 1 billion doses in India and the African continent by 2022. “This vaccine strategy is a vital component of our overall global effort to lead the world in the fight to defeat COVID-19 and to achieve global health security,” the US government said in the press release.